Yemen: Five Saudis on trial for alleged al-Qa’ida involvement

Five Saudis accused of belonging to al-Qaeda and of plotting attacks went on trial Wednesday in a Yemeni court set up for terrorism cases, the official Saba news agency reported.

The five men face charges of plotting “in association with an armed group belonging to al-Qaeda to carry out criminal acts against members of the armed and security forces in Yemen,” Saba said.

They are also on trial for “forging identity documents to obtain passports that enable them to visit Sudan and then Syria,” where foreign Islamists have joined rebel forces, a judicial source said.

All five defendants have pleaded innocent, the source told AFP.

The next hearing is to take place on September 11.

Yemen is the home base of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

AQAP was formed in January 2009 as a merger of the Yemeni and Saudi branches of al-Qaeda.

Its militants took advantage of a decline in central government control during a 2011 uprising that forced veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh from power to seize large swathes of territory across the south.

They were driven back in June 2012 and have been increasingly weakened mainly due to US drone attacks. But they still carry out hit-and-run attacks against security forces.

The Muslim News Awards for Excellence event is to acknowledge British Muslim and non-Muslim contributions to society. Over 850 people from diverse background, Muslim and non-Muslim, attended the gala dinner.